Historical
notes about political history ofprincipality of Galicia - Volhynia
during the second half of 13th
century

Galicia and
Volhynia are historic lands (once principalities) IN WESTERN
PART OF UKRAINE (formerly also in USSR, Poland and
Austria)Left: Ruins of royal castle in Halych, once
capital of mighty Galician kingdom
Right: Monument to the greatest Galician king Danylo
(Daniel, father of Leo / Lev) in Halych.
On the back of the monument is Nativity church from 13 th
century.

Reign of Lev /
Leo: 1264 to 1301(hence the name Lviv /
Leopolis after him)

based on "Sketches
on the History of Galician - Volhynian Rus" by V.T.
Pashuto, 1950
Translated (from Russian) and presented by Roman Zakharii from Berezhany
(town in the heart of Eastern Galicia)

History of Galicia and Volhynia
after the death of king Daniel (Danylo, son of Roman)
until the end of 13th centuries have not been studied
completely in fact. Historians following the version of
Volodymyr Chronichle of bishop Evstigney, were writing
about economic and political decline of these lands. So,
M. S. Hrushevsky and A. E. Presnyakov claimed that when
great Daniel died, "collapse and split of the south
east Rus' lands".

Galician-Volhynian state is being split into few
smaller duchies. Vasylko remained the oldest in Roman's
dynasty. Leo (son of Daniel) was seated in Halych /
Galich and Peremyshl / Przemysl. Mstislav was seated in
Terebovl (todays Terebovlya / Terebovla). And Shavrn (or
Shavrno as he is called often) possesed Kholm anf Belz
provinces. After the death of Daniel, Shvarn (his son)
became a great duke. He united by his power all eastern
Galicia (with center in Halych), Black Rus' (area in
todays' Belarus around cities Slonim, Volkovysk, Turiysk,
Grodna and Novogorodok) and all Zabuzhzhya (Trans-Bug
area which included Rus' cities of Belz, Kholm / Chelm,
Cherven / Czerwien, Melnyk and Dorohychyn / Drohiczyn,
all now part of Poland), while duke Leo ruled in western
Galicia, including Lviv (Leopolis) and Peremyshl.

After Leo's brother Shavrn died (in 1269) Leo took
over eastern Galicia and Zabuzhzhya, where his son George
(Yuri) was seated under father's hand. Later the father
limited the possesions for his son to Melnyk and
Dorohochyn only. Also all more smaller towns were under
Leo's control, for example town Shchekariv (todays
Szczekarkow in Poland), which were vital for the border
defence system along the forest line of western Volhynia
by river Vepr (Wieprz). Also Black Rus' passed under
Lithuanian control when Shvarn died. Thus, after the
death of Daniel, his son Vasylko did not get his
"upper right" as the oldest son. So we can see
that most of Galician Volhynian territory was controlled
by Leo and the duke Volodymyr (son of Vasylko) was seated
in an old
Volhynian capital city of Volodymyr (today Volodymyr
Volynsky in Western Ukarine), keeping control over
eastern and central Volhynia. Volodymyr was unfriendly
towards Leo.

Shvarn was married to the sister of Lithuania duke
Voyshelk (son of Mindaugas: 1236-1263) and Voyshelk had a
suport from him. In the beginning Voyshelk and Shvarn
ruled together in Lithuania, while Shvarn possesed the
Black Rus' lands. When Lithuanian lands were finally
"safe", Voyshelk passed them on to Shvarn and
went to a monastery himself. For this
"kindness" duke Leo killed Voyshelk in a
Volhynian monastery (in Volodymyr). Shvran did not rule
long in Lithuania and after he died Traidenis became a
great duke of Lithuania. The followong relations of
Volhynian dukes with Lithuania were peaceful, beacuse
Tatar-Mongol invasions into Lithuania (1275, 1277)
organized by Leo of Galicia hindered this peace. Besides
that Traidenis attempted to take a better control over
the Black Rus' settling Prussians there (who were
escaping from the advancement of German Crusaders). Duke
of Volodymyr was against thsi but could not do anything.
Clash between Volodymyr of Volhynia (son of Vasylko) with
Sirputiy (the brother of Traidenis) resulted in taking of
Turiysk by Volodymyr and they settled temporary peace
with Traidenis.

The relations of Galician duke Leo with Lithuanian
duke Traidenis first were quite friendly but then
Traidenis took over Dorohychyn from Leo. Dorohychyn (now
Drohiczyn in Poland) was a major trade center on the
route from Lviv (Leopolis) to Torun and the Baltics.
Peace was broken. Using his relatiosn with the Golden
Horde, duke Leo sent messangers to Mengu-Timur, who sent
him troops under the command of Yagurchyn (Yagurain) and
khan ordered that all trans-Dnieper dukes (Roman, Oleh of
Bryansk, Gleb of Smolensk, Pinsk and Turov dukes) and
also Mstislav of Lutsk and Volodymyr of Volodymyr to go
all with Leo. Leo took over control over Dorohoczyn and
even occupied Novogorodok.

Above: Galician Duchy atist greatest period. Click to
enlarge. Map in Ukrainian. Black Sea and Danube mouth at
the right bottom corner. Poland si at upper left corner.
Lithuania from the north. Hungary from south east and
Kyiv (Kiev) Duchy to the east.

Relations of Leo of Galicia with khan Telebuga of
Golden Horde and khan Nogay.

Galician Tatar relations were quite complicated. It is
possible to think that Tatars-Mongols recognized Leo
(Lev, son of Daniel of Halych) as a great ruler of Halych
-Volhyn lands'. South esat Ukraine' suffered not only
because it was under the rule of Golden Horde but it also
experienced pressure from the horde of Nogay, who had
created his center at the northern coast of the Black
Sea. Nogay controlled a greater part of Ukrainian
lowlands, including Galician lowlands (Ponyzzya).

After death of Mengu Timur (1280-1282), a double rule
was established in Horde, which lasted until 1291. Khan
Telebuga (the successor of Mengu-Timur) who took the
Golden horde trone in 1287-1288, continued hostilies and
fight against Nogay. It is possible to guess that
presence of two centers of Tatar-Mongol rule caused two
orientatiosn among local dukes. For example duke Leo
maintained realatiosn with Nogay and with Mengu-Timur,
while for duke of Vladimir, Mengu-Timur was once
"great king" while Nogay was "cursed and
unlawful".

After the next complaint (regarding Lithuania) arrived
from Rus' kings not only to the Golden Horde but also to
Nogay, he sent (around 1277) then his ambassodors
"with letters" to Leo, Mstislav and Vladimir
(such an order of listing dukes, was copied probably by
Vladimir chronichle writer from khan's letter) saying
"You always complain to me about Lithuania, thus I
give you the army and a warlord Mamyshey with it, go with
them!". Though, this raid was not successfull for
Vladimir duke (Tatars fought separately around
Novogorodok) and secondly duke Mstislav of Lutsk (in
Volhynia) and George (or Yuri, son of Leo) together with
Kholm (todays Chelm) warlord Tyuima fought at Gorodno
(Hrodna) not with much luck.

We can see that Leo of Galicia was quite connected to
Nogay, also from the next fact: After the death of duke
Boleslaw (of Smaller Poland), duke Leo attempted to
establish himself at Cracow throne or at least to occupy
the town son the Vkrayina (= borderland, that is
west of river Vepr / Wieprz) and in this attempt Leo
asked for help from Nogay (and not from Golden Horde):
Leo himself went to the "cursed and unlawful"
Nogay to ask for help and khan Nogay gave him assistance
and troops under the command of warlards Konchak
(Konçak, probably from Cumans), Kuzey and Kubatan.

Also at this case, Khan Nogay ordered south eastern
dukes to go on the raid on Cracow together with Leo. Leo
was glad to advance with Tatars, while duke Mstislav (of
Volhynia), duke Vladimir (of Vladimir) and his son Daniel
(who died soon) went unwillingly being forced by Tatars.
And during military actions, duke Vladimir delibirately
stood "on the back". Since duke Leo did not
succeed to take Cracow, Vladimir's chronichle-writer
noted with gladness "that Galician duke returned
home with great dishonour".

The growth of fight and tension between the Golden
Horde khan Telebuga and Nogay, brought new troubles for
Galicia and whole of south east Rus'. Sometimes, both
khanes acted together, so it was during their raid on
Hungary (1285). As a matter of rule, Galician and Rus'
dukes were ordered to go on the raid together with them
as well (Leo of Galicia and Mstislav of Volhynia departed
themselves but duke Vladimir sent his army under the
command of George (Yuri, son of Leo).

View over Halych (Halicz in Polish). Engraving from 18th
century.

At this time, Polish duke Boleslaw invaded Galician
lands (because of this duke Leo was freed from taking
part in the raid after they entered Hungary). According
to the Vladimir's chronchler, the raid of Tatar-Mongols
on Hungary ended with no luck: khan Nogay turned going
east to Brasov and khan Telebuga went "through the
mountain". Nothing is said about Nogay further but
it is said the second one got lost in the Carpathians and
"left with shame".

The next raid of Tatars khans clearly showed
disagreements and tensiosn between them. In 1286 khan
Telebuga decided to oragnize the raid on Poland, and
probably together with Nogay. For this purpose, khan
Telebuga arrived with the armies to Nogay's headquarters
but there was "a great disagreement between
them" and in the end khan Telebuga moved against
Poland himself. Telebuga gave order to be accompnied in
the raid by all Galician- Volhynian and trans-Dnieper
dukes. Thsi time, his way laid through Volhynia. At the
river Horyn (Goryn), khan Telebuga was met with presents
by duke Mstislav of Volhnynia. At Peremyl (now a small
town on the south east of Volyn region in Western
Ukraine) on the river Lypa Telebuga was greeted with
presents by Vladimir (son of Vasylko) and at Buzhkovychi
(today a village further east from Peremyl) khan was
welcomed by Leo (son of Daniel) of Galicia.

Khan Telebuga left part of his troops in Volodymyr
(then capital of Volhynian principality) and moved
against Poland together with Rus' regiments. Note that
Tatars-Mongols had plundered Volhynian land by that.
Tatar-Rus' troops were advancing towards Cracow via Sandomyr (Sandomierz)
and Zavykhost
(Zawichost). But here was a surprise! Khan Telebuga
learned "that Nogay went ahead of him to
Cracow" and had to return back plundering Lviv lands
on the way.

Khan Nogay had led his troops to Cracow also but by a
different root - through western Galicia and Peremyshl
(Przemysl). Because of this hatred between khans Telebuga
and Nogay became even greater, being afraid of each
other.

Plan of medieval Halych (14 - 17th centuries)

The next year (1287), there was one more raid of khan
Telebuga onto Poland. Thsi time together with Alguy (son
of Mengu-Timur). How it went we do not know. We know only
that on the way back, Telebuga being accompanied by dukes
Leo and Mstislav, was going via Lviv. Namely at this
point duke Vladimir using the presence of mighty Telebuga
and Alguy, decided to pass his throne to to Mstislav (son
of Danylo). Duke Leo attempted to break this act later,
taking into consideration existance of "his
friend" khan Nogay, but Mstislav forced him
withdraw, explaining that power transfer was made and
agreed with the rulers of Golden Horde and their
councellors, frightening to complain to the Golden Horde.

The facst listed above, prove that advancement of new
Tatar Mongol hordes of Burunday (1257) onto Galicia and
south east Rus', discovered the period of already exising
Tatar-Monghol rule there with the baskak system and a
regular collection of "tatarshchyna"
(tatardom).

Despite of this, Galicia and other Rus' principalities
remained strong enough in order to play a significant
role in East European politics which encompassed Poland,
Hungary, Czechia and German lands. Here the first place
belonged to Galician principality. Regretfully,
Vladimir's chronichle speaks very little about this. Duke
of Vladimir and his court had external political
interests (besides Lithuania), mainly in Mazovia
(Mazowsze) maintaining strong union with Mazovian dukes.

The politics of duke Leo of Galicia was much broader
and much more significant than of his partners in
Volhynia. Being situated between Poland and Hungary,
Galician and Volhynian dukes could last being relatively
independent only by manuevring between Tatar forces and
Polish - Hungarian neighbours. The external politics of
Galician duke Leo was quite definite and clear but in his
plans he very likely had to have the correspondent
sanctions from the khan of Golden Horde. He was acting as
a vassal of the Golden Horde, using Tatar help in his
external political interests (Galician raids on Lithuania
1275, 1277 and raid on Poland 1280). Generally
Galician-Volyn Rus was isolated from the rest of Rus'
lands (though Leo married his son George / Yuri to the
daughter of Yaroslav of Tver). Russian historians claim
that isolation was a reason of growing weakness of
Galician-Volhynian Rus'.

External poltics of Galician duke was based first on
the union with Hungary and next with Czechs. In spring
1270, Hungarian king Bela IV died and his successor
Stefan V broke peace with king Pshemysl II of Czechia and
war started between them in 1270. In the act of peace
agreement (July 1271) among the allies of Hungary are
listed: Leo of Galicia, Mstislav of Volhynia and Vasylko
(son of Vasylko). As wee see the order of listing of Rus
dukes in foreign sources is nearly the same as in Rus'
source.

Furthermore, during the last war between Czech
king Pshemysl (Premysl Ottokar II) with Austrian king
Rudolf
of Habsburgs, Galician and Nad Volhynian dukes were
on Czech side. But Rudolf the Habsburg took his own
measures to attract duke Leo to the union. He sent his
trusted Fransiscan Henrich to the Polish dukes, who was
entrusted to establish connection with Rus' court since
Henrich (through his grandfather Konrad of mazovia) had a
family connection to Rus' dukes and hoped for success of
his mission. Seems like he achieved this success since
Austrian sources mention "chüning Lee von
Ruessen" among the allies of Rudolf. Among his
troops we find Bruteni (that is Ruteni) being listed
among "universae barbarae nationes" along with
Hungarians.

The relations of Galicia with Czechia imroved when
Vaclav became a Czech king (since 1278). At this time,
duke Leo acted separately from Hungary and had a
different attitude towards Poland. After the death of
Boleslav the Shy (Boleslwa Wstydliwy) Leo was one of the
candidates for the duke's throne of Smaller Poland. He
organized a raid onto Poland using help of khan Nogay and
Volhynian dukes but his troops cwent through Zawychost -
Sandomierz reaching Kropiwnica but did reach the goal.

However after this misfortune, Galicain duke continued
to fight with new duke of Cracow - Leszko the Black (died
in 1288) over the control of eastern Polish lands. Later
Leo gave armed support to the second candidate for
Cracocian throne, namely Boleslaw Semantowicz. But
Boleslaw did not manage to establish himself well on the
throne and after a while resigned.

Leo did not remain to fight Henrich IV, shifting his
fight to Silesia. Leo's Galician troops advanced towards
Wroclaw, reached Nysa and Grotkow, invaded Ratibor
(Raciborz) and after having plundered lands of Henrich
IV, Leo sent captives and great booty back home.

Contemporaries regarded Galician duke Leo as a great
state leader. In Vladimir chronichle he is said to be
"a proud and intelligent, brave and strong in army,
since he showed much of braveness in many battles".
His name was known in Europe of those times. Not by
accident, in anonymical treatese"Flos historiarum
Terrae Orienties" (Source of history of land of the
East, from 1308, which is being kept in French National
Library) it is said that "Ruthenia (Galician
Rus') is a huge land (terra permaxima) bordering with
Bulgaria and Greece...this land is vassal of Tatars now
and its dux Leo"

We should note the high level of culture in south
eastern Rus' in 13th century, clearly reflected in
chronichle writing. Chronichle of Cyryll, Chronichle of
Ivan, chronichles of Vasylko and of Volodymyr testify
about the progress in chronichle writing in many feudal
centers of south eastern Rus, such as Khom (Chelm),
Volodymyr (Vladimir), Halych (Galich), Kiev, Novogorodok
and others.

Above: Two photos of the Nativity Church in Halych
(Galich) which dates from the reign of Leo / Lev from
13th century

Social
relations, trade, nobility in medieval Galician lands

Great duke possesed the castles among which were
Daniel's city-castles - Kholm (Chelm, in today's Poland),
Danyliv (today village between Dubno and Krements in
Western Ukraine), Ugrivsk (on Bug river, south of Wlodawa
in today's Poland) and others. Volodymyr (son of Vasylko)
had castles in Luboml (in Volynska
oblast of modern Western Ukraine. See photo below),
in Ray and others. Mstislav (son of Danylo) had castle in
Hay (Gay) and so on. Galician nobleman (boyaryn) Klymyata
(who betrayed king Daniel) had in possesion Holi Hory
(today's village Holohory / Gologory) west of Zvenyhorod.
Family of noblemen Arbuzovich / Harbuzovich owned a
fortified city Plesnesk (between Brody and Holohory)
until Vasylko had destroyed this nest, after the order of
Galician king Daniel, noting that Vasylko took "a
great booty". Other family of Molibogovich, had
possesions in Volodrys. Noblemen of thsi family
partcipated in a mutinty against Daniel. The mutiny was
organized by boyaryn Pylyp (Philipp).

Above: Polish Roman Catholic church in ancient
Luboml (in modern Volynska oblast of
Western Ukraine) from 14th century. Galicia was occupied
by Polish king Kaziemierz and made part of Poland in
1363.

Galicia and Rus' did not broke trade connections with
Regensburg. In 11th century, sources noted the caravan of
Regensburg Jewish merchants who were returning from Rus'
through Hungary. Y. Brutskus notes that in Jewish
literature of 10th and 12th centuries, and in Rabbinical
responses of this era, Jewish merchants who were
traveling by whole caravans to Rus', found special
definition "Holchei russia", similar to theirs
chronichle name "ruzarii". In 1180 Friedrich of
Saxonia freed from taxes Rus' traders among others. In
this case and also in the letter of Leopolod of Austria
(1190) about the mutual trade of Rus' people and Germans,
we should understand merchants from south eastern Rus'
(that is Galicia).

On the south Galician trading ships sailed from the
mouth of Dniester to the Danube: to the city of Galac
(Minor Galich / Halych) and other Danube cities. So, for
example in 1159 duke Ivan Rostyslavovych (Berladnyk)
having established himself here, captured sea vessels,
which belonged to Yaroslav Osmomysl. Wide Galician
colonization of banks along Dniester, Prut and Seret
(with the way out to the mouth of Danube and to the Black
Sea) had created here many Galician Rus' cities: Drestvyn
(Dorostol / todays Silistra in Bulgaria), Chern, Bilhorod (Belgorod
/ former Akerman), Romaniv Torg (near todays Bacau in
Romania) and others.

Bilhorod Fortress from 12 - 14 centuries. Bilhorod
(today Bilhorod Dnistrovsky) at Dniester's mouth, was a
city colonized from Galicia by the river, being a key
trading post of Galician principality on the Black Sea
during 13th century. Fortress was set up by Genovians in
12 th century.

Relations between Galicia and
Cumans (Polovtsi). Tatar invasion on Rus'.

Galician Ponyzzya (lowlands) - "field" was
not "empty" at all, thanks to energetic Roman's
politics towards Cumans. There were cities Plac,
Kuchelmyn and others. Carts with products were going to
Plav, ships from Kyiv's sea port Oleshshya, loaded with
fish, wine and other goods. Ponyzzya ships from Dniester
through the sea and Dnieper were going to Kyiv.
Popolation was composed of Galician Rus' people or
"ours ungodly": Cumans, Torks etc. There most
likely were also possesions of Galician noblemen
(boyars), who escaped from duke's court, so called
"vyhontsi" (the ones who were chased away).
Thus the coast of the Black Sea from Oleshshya (near
modern Kherson, Ukraine) to Galac (on the left bank of
Danube. Toady in Romania) was under the rule of
Galician-Volhynian dukes. Tatar-Mongols, having occupied
the Black Sea coast, broke these connections.

In northern Black Sea area, far from the hands of
mighty dukes, noblemen (boyars) feeled themselves as
lords and had good relations with local Cumans. It is
clear that relations with Cumans in Galicia and whole of
south east Rus were tight ones and quite friendly in 13th
century. Educated people at Galician court knew Cuman
language and Cuman oral tradition was reflected in local
chronichle writings.

In year 1203 Novgorod chronichle not only describes
southern news about raid of Ryurik with Olgovychi and
Cumans onto Kyiv but also mentions the names of Cuman
dukes (not preserved in southern Chronichle): Konchak /
Konçak and Danyla Byakovych / Byakovich.

Kyiv Chronichle, 1238,
describes events of Tatar invasion of 1223
and their victory over Rus' dukes and Cumans:

We heared as Tatars invaded many lands, having
deafeted a huge number of ungodly Yases (Alans), Obezes
(todays Abazins), Kasogs (Circassians) and Cumans
(Polovtsi) and others were chasaed away and killed by the
wreath of God"

Cuman leader Kotyan has applied to Galician duke
and all dukes with the following message:

"Our land was taken by Tatars, and yours they
will take tomorrow, thus defend us and if you will not
help us, we will be cut to death now and you will killed
tomorrow..."

"And so many wanted to help Kotyan, hearing
begging of Cuman dukes and there was a council of all
dukes in Kyiv...And all dukes crossed the Dnieper and
went on hosrse into Cuman steppe and Tatars met Rus'
regiments. Rus Bowmen having defeated them persecuted
them further in the steppe, killing them and taking their
cattle. From there going 8 days to the river Kalka and
sending as the watchmen Yarun with regiments and with
Cumans, while the rest stopped here. Then Yarun
encountered the Tatars and wanted to fight them, while
Cumans withdrew and Tatars defeated Rus' dukes, who did
not manage to organize themselves to oppose them.."

I am presenting list of links about Cumans (now non
existing Turkic people, akin to modern Turks, Crimean
Tatars and Gagauz) and their related kinsmen. I am
especially interested in Cuman history of Ukraine as my
mother's family and grandmother come from a village Karabachyn (in Ukraine),
which has obvious Turkic name deriving from two words: kara bahçemeaning black garden / court in
Turkic. Karabachyn is situated in southern part of
Zhytomyr region (Brusylivskyy rayon) of central Ukraine,
while my father's family is from Galicia
(Berezhany, Ternopil region) and Western
Ukraine where I grew up and was born.